Mensa Otabil - God Is Our Refuge
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Proverbs chapter 14, verse 26: «In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.» It is so interesting how the Scriptures speak to us. The fear of the Lord is our strong confidence. The fear of the Lord does not give us timidity; it does not discourage us or disappoint us. But when we fear God, we have strong confidence in Him, and in Him is our refuge.
The Lord is our place of refuge. God is a refuge to the poor; He is a refuge to the needy, a shelter from the storm. He is a father to the orphan, a healer of the broken, a fountain of water to the thirsty, and the lover of the lonely. When everything is against you, you can trust that God is not against you, unless you have separated yourself from Him. Simple words like these help us and inspire us to trust the Lord, and they give us an accurate picture of God. You know, a lot of us have been introduced to a wrong picture of God, and sometimes it comes from our own view of what a superior authority should be like.
So when we think of a superior authority, we are thinking of someone who imposes on us, someone who is very strict and restrictive, someone who does not give us space to operate in. Sometimes, because of our own traditional spirituality, we serve gods that are very capricious and act very illogically. We bring those things to our Christian faith and think of God as also capricious. God can do whatever He wants to do. Yes, He can do whatever He wants to do, but He doesn’t do whatever He wants to do. God does things with His love, with His grace, with His mercy, with His kindness.
So although He has all power, He uses His power well, and that is why He can help those who have no help and shelter those who have no place to shelter. Once you get an accurate picture of God, once you know Him for who He is beyond your fears and anxieties, once you know who God is, it is so easy to trust Him for your shelter. One reason why people are unable to trust God is that they have a wrong picture of Him. They think He is a mean, very wicked person who is out there to get you when you make a mistake, just to destroy you and cast you out.
Sometimes, unfortunately, preachers present that image of God. But if you read the totality of the Bible, not just isolated verses, but the totality of the Bible, the picture of God is that He is good, He is kind, He is a helper, He is a refuge. He loves the lonely, He loves the orphan, He loves the downtrodden- those who have no one to lift them up. That is the image of God. Once that God becomes your confidence, then every fear lifts. So when the world crushes you and deals deadly blows against you, you come to the Lord, and He will bind and restore you.
When you feel wounded and broken, you go to the Lord, and He will put you together. When all men revile you, you go to the Lord, and He lifts you up. When everybody rejects you, you go to the Lord, and He brings you to Himself. I trust your picture of God will be the accurate picture of the God of the Bible, and when you trust in Him and fear Him, then your confidence in Him will be very strong.
Let’s pray. Sit with me. Heavenly Father, my confidence is in You. In You, I have a place of refuge from all the storms of life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.